Members of the Independent Inquiry into Media Regulation at Sydney University. In the middle is Chair of Inquiry Ray Finkelstein centre, Chris Young (left) and Prof. Matthew Ricketson (right)

When I started in 2005 fighting to defend normal scientific standards over the exaggerations and biases of climate science extremism, I never thought it would end up in a fight for free speech over left-wing totalitarianism. Apparently, based on the Finkelstein Media Inquiry, it has come to this.

Some comments from blogs, proposed in the report to be regulated by a new Ministry of Truth:

So it can’t happen here, can’t it? by Steve Kates:

But surely they cannot be thinking of looking at my opinion to decide whether I can be prosecuted? But if not that, what, precisely, do they have in mind? This is more than just a thin edge of the wedge. This is how it starts and this is not where it will end.

Its worth skimming the report to see what social scientists are up to these days. It’s something called “social responsibility theory” and its origins are apparently in totalitatianism, as well described on page 50.

Authoritarian theory, the oldest and through history the most pervasive, reflected societies which held that all persons were not equal, that some were wiser than others and it was those persons whose opinions should therefore be preferred; societies in which fealty to the monarch or ruler or tyrant was demanded of all and where the people were told what their rulers thought they ought to know. Totalitarian theory shared many of these characteristics, but contained one important additional dimension: the education of the people in the ‘correct’ truth.

Note that the Review is proposing regulating of blogs “with a minimum of 15,000 hits per annum” – a miniscule traffic that would include Niche Modeling.

If a publisher distributes more than 3000 copies of print per issue or a news internet site has a minimum of 15 000 hits per annum it should be subject to the jurisdiction of the News Media Council, but not otherwise. These numbers are arbitrary, but a line must be drawn somewhere.

The figure of 40 hits a day is even more ridiculous considering around 90% of hits are from bots, crawlers, spammers and the like. So basically any blog that is read by anybody would be captured in the Green/Labor Government net.

A government regulator installed to monitor and control the free press. What could possibly go wrong? – Gab

If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidise it. Ronald Reagan

The Finkelstein Report in over 400 pages attempts to justify its intervention into free speech, devoting considerable space to the topic of “market failure,” where it is claimed that a free press has lead to undesirable results, such as the creation of monopolies, unjustified harm to people, and an unjust coverage of issues like global warming. In raising the notion of “market failure,” they never argue for the moral and productive superiority of capitalism, to which we owe a free press, and the moral bankruptcy and destructive economic consequences of Green environmentalism.

Sign the Menzies House Free Speech Petition